It is common for poultry products, such as chickens, to be seasoned or flavored prior to packaging. For example, whole processed chickens are often marinated in or seasoned with any of a variety of flavors, such as for example "Italian Style", "Lemon Pepper" and "Barbeque," and then packaged for sale. The idea is to simplify and reduce the amount of preparation required of the final customer, which enhances the appeal of the product. After seasoning or marinating, the appropriate tag is applied to the chicken to identify its flavor. Other purposes for applying tags to poultry and meat products, as well as other types of food products, include identification of the brand and/or the variety of the product.
Another technique used by processors to identify poultry products is to secure the appendages of the product with a large string, which has a pre-punched tag secured previously thereto by the tag manufacturer. Once the string and tag are secured to the appendages, the poultry is seasoned and packaged. This too works fine, as long as the bird is properly seasoned after the tag is attached to the bird, and as long as there is no need to change the tag. Should a bird receive flavoring that differs from the tag, the string needs to be untied, a new tag threaded onto the string, and the string resecured to the legs and wings of the bird. As sometimes happens, an order of poultry birds may change after the tags have been applied but prior to seasoning. In this case, the strings need to be untied to allow a new tag to be secured to the string. Because use of a string and tag can be cumbersome, some food processors avoid problems by slitting the thigh skin of a whole bird and tucking the appendages under the skin.
Furthermore, it is sometimes desired by stores to prepare their own seasonings and marinades and for these stores it is preferable to separately provide pre-labeled tags that can be secured to the birds after flavoring at the store.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,498,201 discloses an earlier retainer design of mine that secures together the hocks of a poultry bird. It was common to color code the retainer or imprint labels thereon to indicate characteristics such as flavoring of the bird. However, the retainer of my '201 patent was used solely for securing the hooks and also does not have room thereon for labeling the product.
The present invention is directed toward providing an improved tag that is easily secured and removed from a poultry, meat or other type of food product after flavoring and cooking and that is flexible to allow for easy attachment by several means.